Ofqual 2017 1

This release presents the number of reviews of marking and moderation and administrative error reviews (collectively referred to as ‘reviews’)

made following the summer 2017 exam series and the number of qualification grades challenged and changed as a result.

GCSE grades challenged and grades changed Mark changes

5.9% of all GCSE

grades awarded were

challenged and 1.4%

were changed, up from

5.3% and 1.0%

respectively in 2016.

55% of GCSE and GCE reviews resulted in no mark change

GCE grades challenged and grades changed Most commonly challenged grades

4.6% of all GCE grades

awarded were

challenged and 1.0%

were changed, up from

4.2% and 0.8%

respectively in 2016.

A*-G GCSE

D 29% of A*-G grades

challenged were

grade D

9-1 GCSE

3 32% of 9-1 grades

challenged were

grade 3

GCE

B 32% of GCE grades

challenged were

grade B

Reviews of marking and moderation GCSE and GCE: summer 2017 series

Annual Published: 14 December 2017 Coverage: England Official Statistics

2

Reviews of marking and moderation This report presents data on requests for reviews of marking and moderation and

administrative error reviews (collectively referred to throughout this release as ‘reviews’

and formerly known as enquiries about results) made to exam boards for the summer

2017 GCSE and GCE (AS and A level) exam series in England.

A whole qualification (eg AS Physics) will comprise a number of assessments. Reviews

are submitted for each assessment individually. Often reviews are submitted for

multiple assessments that a student has taken for one qualification or, in some cases,

multiple reviews are requested for the same assessment (eg an administrative error

review may be requested and then a review of marking). In 2017, 49% of students

whose qualification grades were challenged had more than one review submitted for

that qualification. This is why the total number of qualification grades challenged is

lower than the total number of reviews.

Each exam board offers three services for reviewing the marking of exam papers and non-exam assessment:

An administrative error review for an individual assessment (“Service 1”).

A review of marking for an individual assessment (“Service 2” priority and non-

priority). This includes an administrative error review as well.

A review of moderation of the school or college’s internal assessment using the

sample of students’ work that was used in the initial moderation (“Service 3”).

Reports published in previous years included data for students in Wales and Northern

Ireland as well. Historical figures in this year’s report reflect England only figures and

may therefore differ from previously published figures. Following a transition

arrangement with Qualifications Wales (the regulator in Wales) and CCEA (the

regulator in Northern Ireland), Ofqual will publish separate data tables for students in

Wales and Northern Ireland without commentary for the academic year 2016/17.

In this release, all figures are rounded to the nearest 5 to ensure confidentiality of data.

Further information on this release is available in the background information as well as

data tables accompanying this report.

At a glance Page

Number of reviews, qualification grades challenged and changed by service type

3

Grades challenged and changed by subject

5

Original qualification grades subject to review

7

Raw mark changes following reviews

8

Grades changed following reviews 10

Average review response times 11

Units/components with the highest percentage of reviews

12

Head of profession: Vikas Dhawan

Email: statistics@ofqual.gov.uk

Published: 14 December 2017

Ofqual/17/6311/1

Published 15 December 2017

Ofqual/XX/XXXX

3

Number of reviews, grades challenged and grades changed by service type At GCSE, 425,075 reviews were requested, an increase of 44% from 2016 (294,870 reviews). This is mainly due to increases in the number of

English/ English language and English literature reviews; a result of increases in both the number of exams taken in reformed qualifications

and candidates certificating in these subjects. At GCE 95,845 reviews were requested, a drop of 8% from 2016 (103,790 reviews). This

reflects changes in assessment entries which are down 12% at GCE, mainly due to a drop in the number of AS entries. The tables and charts

below show the breakdown of reviews, grades challenged and grades changed by service type.

Non-priority reviews of marking

Priority reviews of marking

Note. Only Pearson offer priority reviews of marking at GCSE.

4

Reviews of moderation

Note. The number of grades challenged and changed through reviews of moderation is higher than the number of reviews because one review involves a number of students, see background information for more details.

Administrative error reviews

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Tables 3 to 6 in the accompanying data.

5

Grades challenged and grades changed by subject

GCSE grades challenged and changed for each subject, 2016 and 2017

Note: Underlying figures are reported in Table 7 in the accompanying data.

There is some variation in the percentage of

grades challenged across GCSE subjects in

2017 (range: 2.0% to 10.5%). The percentages

are shown here as grey bars.

There is less variation in the percentage of GCSE

qualification grades that were changed following

reviews (shown here as blue bars) across

subjects, never rising above 4% of the total

number of qualifications awarded (range: 0.4% to

3.8%). Last year, the percentage of GCSE

qualification grades challenged ranged from 1.9%

to 10.4% and the percentage of qualification

grades changed ranged from 0.4% to 2.1%.

In 26 out of 37 subjects, the percentage of

qualification grades that were challenged and

changed was higher in 2017 compared to 2016.

The most notable amongst these increases is in

English language and English literature,

contributing to the overall increase in the

proportion of successful challenges in GCSE. It

seems efforts to embed the revised rules for

reviews (see background information for the

rules) have varied by exam board and subject

and that some reviewers changed marks where

there was no error with original marking.

6

GCE grades challenged and changed for each subject, 2016 and 2017

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Table 8 in the accompanying data.

As with GCSE, there was some variation in

the percentage of grades challenged across

subjects in 2017 (range: 0.5% to 9.8%).

However, the percentage of qualification

grades awarded that were changed following

reviews is much more consistent across

subjects, never rising above 2.5% of the total

number of qualifications awarded (range:

0.1% to 2.2%).

This pattern is similar to last year where the

percentage of GCE qualification grades

challenged ranged from 0.5% to 11.7% and

the percentage of qualification grades

changed ranged from 0.1% to 2.4%.

In 20 out of 33 subjects, the percentage of

qualification grades awarded that were

challenged and changed was higher in 2017

compared to 2016.

7

Grades subject to review The charts below show the original qualification grades of students whose grades were subject to review.

GCSE A* to G

For GCSE A* to G, the most commonly challenged grade was D (50,225 or 29% of all grades

challenged). This was the same last year. However, the percentage of grades challenged with

an original grade of D has fallen by 4.7 percentage points in 2017 and by 7.7 percentage points

in total since 2015. There were slight increases in the percentage of grades challenged on other

grades. These differences may reflect usual year-on-year variation or they could possibly be due

to changes in key stage 4 accountability measures (for further details please see the

accompanying background information). However, it should be noted that it is not possible to

compare like with like between 2016 and 2017 due to the majority of grades challenged in

English language, English literature and mathematics in 2017 being 9-1 grades.

GCSE 9 to 1

For GCSE 9 to 1, the most commonly challenged grade was 3 (42,010 or 32% of all grades

challenged). This is likely to reflect the importance of attaining a “standard pass” of grade 4 in

English language and mathematics GCSEs. It is a condition of funding that students continuing in

programmes of study without a grade 4 or above in these subjects are required to resit or take

other English or mathematics qualifications in their continuing programmes of study.

Furthermore, grades of 4 or above count towards the English Baccalaureate accountability

measure.

GCE

For GCE, the most commonly challenged grade was B (21,825 or 32% of all grades challenged),

closely followed by C (18,865 or 28% of all grades challenged). This year there was a slight

increase in the proportion of students with an original grade of A, B and C whilst the proportion of

students with an original grade of D, E and U all decreased slightly.

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Table 9 in the accompanying data.

8

Raw mark changes The charts below show the distribution of all raw mark changes following review. Raw mark changes described in this section relate to the

difference in the mark given to a single unit, component or subcomponent before and after review.

In the majority of cases (55%), there was no mark change. Nearly three quarters (73%) of all reviews resulted in either no mark change or a

change of one mark, and less than 8% of reviews resulted in a mark of change of five marks or more. When marks were changed, they were

more likely to go up than down, with 72% of reviews resulting in a mark change receiving an increase in marks.

Distribution of GCSE raw mark changes

Distribution of GCE raw mark changes

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Table 10 in the accompanying data.

9

Average absolute raw mark change The charts below show the average absolute raw mark change for the ten GCSE and GCE subjects with the highest number of grades

challenged. The subjects are ordered by number of grades challenged, the subject with the highest number of grades challenged appears at

the top of the chart. As above, raw mark changes relate to the difference in the mark given to a single unit, component or subcomponent

before and after review. The absolute mark change is the mark change expressed as a positive value and the average is calculated using all

absolute mark changes, including mark changes of zero. The average absolute mark change in 2017 was never greater than three marks

across subjects and qualification levels. To put this in context, the average maximum mark for units, components and subcomponents that

were reviewed across all subjects and qualification levels was 73 marks.

Across both qualification levels, the subjects with the lowest average absolute mark changes tend to be mathematics and the sciences and

those with the highest tend to be English, arts subjects and religious studies with the humanities and modern foreign languages falling in

between. This pattern is likely to reflect the nature of the assessment which is more subjective in subjects like English and the arts than in

subjects like mathematics and the sciences. Increases in the average absolute mark changes seen in 2017 may reflect the reduction in the

number of reviews resulting in no mark change and/or components from reformed specifications generally having a higher maximum mark,

meaning that mark changes of greater magnitudes may be more likely. It is therefore difficult to compare like with like between 2016 and 2017

in reformed subjects.

GCSE

GCE

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Table 11 in the accompanying data.

10

Grades changed The charts below show the magnitude of grade changes made following review. In the majority of cases (76% of grades challenged), there

was no grade change following review. When grades were changed, they were most commonly changed by just one grade – 98% of all grade

changes were changes of one grade. Very few students had their grades changed by two grades or more – in 2017, 0.5% of all grades

challenged resulted in a grade change of two grades or more, this figure was 0.1% in 2016.

2017 GCSE

2017 GCE

2016 GCSE

2016 GCE

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Table 12 in the accompanying data.

11

Average response times In this section, the average time taken in days to respond to reviews is presented for reviews of marking (priority and non-priority) and

administrative error reviews. Exam boards decide their own maximum timescales for completing reviews and reporting the outcome.

In the majority of cases (99.9%), reviews were completed well within the maximum time allowed. At the time of data collection, 265 reviews

were still being processed and 86% of these (227 reviews) were within the agreed turnaround times at that point in time.

Administrative error reviews

Reviews of marking (non-priority)

Reviews of marking (priority)

2016 2017 2016 2017 2016 2017 Maximum time to complete reviews (days)

GCSE average response time (days)

GCE average response time (days)

*Only Pearson offer priority reviews of marking at GCSE.

Note. We do not have data on the average time taken to respond to reviews of moderation. Underlying figures are reported in Tables 3 and 4 in the accompanying data.

12

Units/components with the highest percentage of entries reviewed The charts below show the percentage of unit/component entries reviewed and the percentage of reviews resulting in a mark change for the

10 units/components taken by more than 1,000 students with the highest percentage of reviews of marking requested (99% of reviews are

reviews of marking, priority and non-priority).

At GCSE, the units with the highest percentage of entries reviewed are mainly English language and English literature units (both legacy and

reformed units). This is likely to reflect the importance of results in these subjects for students, schools and colleges. At GCE, the prominence

of subjects such as philosophy, Latin, music, drama and English literature is likely to be due to the assessments being more subjective in

nature than subjects such as mathematics and the sciences. In qualifications which have a high proportion of non-exam assessment (such as

music and drama), there are fewer units/components that can be subject to reviews of marking. It is therefore possible that higher rates of

reviews are seen for examined units/components in these qualifications as the reviews are concentrated in one or two units/components. Even

though the units/components below have the highest percentage of reviews requested, they do not necessarily have the highest percentage of

mark changes.

The ten GCSE units/components with the highest percentage of entries subject to reviews of marking

13

The ten GCE units/components with the highest percentage of entries subject to reviews of marking

Note. Underlying figures are reported in Tables 13 and 14 in the accompanying data.

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